Sunday, March 4, 2012

Bought gas lately? I have. I just paid $4.29 a gallon in Santa Cruz. Yes, yes, I realize that Santa Cruz is a little touristy and that could account for some of it, but not much. I paid $4.21 in San Jose the other day. The point here is that we're being screwed for no apparent reason. But what is becoming more and more apparent is that no one cares, no one is going to do anything and we are at the mercy of whatever anyone wants to charge us.

Even President Barry has commented on this recent inexplicable surge in petroleum pricing. What he had to say on the matter was one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. Then again, I was listening as someone hoping for some sort of solution. A light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, if you will. There's no light. None. Just darkness. Oily darkness.

President Barry gave his weekly radio address the other day. (Did you know that President Barry gave a weekly radio address? Me neither. He does know about the Internet, right? Radio seems to be a strange medium to get a message across. Then again, it was just an asinine statement that he made, he might not have wanted a lot of people to actually hear it. Maybe he figured if it was on the radio that it would just be overlooked.) And do you know what his solution to high gas prices is? Better cars. Duh.

According to theSalt Lake Tribune (and apparently the radio), he said that "Detroit automakers are on track to build cars that average nearly 55 miles per gallon by 2025, doubling current mileage standards." Oh, really? 2025?! That will help me out soooo much next week! And they're "on track" to build those sorts of cars? On TRACK?! How hard is this really? I have a telephone in my pocket that accesses the Internet and takes pictures. (I assume it also makes phone calls, but I really couldn't say for sure.) You're telling me that with aaalllllll of the technology and knowledge that we have about so many things that it is still going to take until 2025 to build a car with better gas mileage?! That's pretty pathetic.

Didn't John F. Kennedy challenge us to put a man on the moon within the decade when he said that? (That was 1962, by the way. I'm not just making this stuff up.) And didn't we put a man on the moon in 1969? So we can get a man from Earth to another freaking planet (Yes, I know a moon is not a planet per se. That's not the point here. FOCUS!), but we're only "on track" to have a car that gets 55 mpg in 13 years? I don't want a flying car; I just want a regular car! (OK, that's a lie. I totally want a flying car! But you know what I'm saying.) It's taking us almost twice as long to build a fuel efficient vehicle that people want than it took us to get people on the moon and back safely?! Are we supposed to be excited about this? Because I'm hardly excited. I'm angry, but I'm not excited.

He continued along with this rainbow and unicorn way of thinking with "That means folks will be able to fill up every two weeks instead of every week, saving the typical family more than $8,000 at the pump over time. That’s a big deal, especially as families are yet again feeling the pinch from rising gas prices." Uhhh...am I the only one who caught the "over time" he put in there. Saving $8,000 over how much time, President Barry? I can save $8,000 "over time" too. Oh, did I mention how much time? Forty years. How's that? Sound ridiculous? So does he.

This is such crap. No one is willing to give anyone a straight answer about why gas prices do what they do. (Current speculation is that gas prices got so high because we might go to war with Iran. How does that work? We're already IN two wars. One more makes that big of a difference? Besides, I don't think it's going to happen. My money's on Israel doing their thing and the US feigning ignorance over it. "They did what? Bombed them? We are so surprised. This is brand new information!") And for President Barry to stand there (Or sit. I have no idea how antiquated radio broadcasts work.) and act like we should be excited that we might get a fuel efficient vehicle in about 13 years is pandering beyond pandering. We're not really dumb children. (OK, people as a whole aren't exactly geniuses. But they do know that this is crap!) All we want is for the price of gas to go down. And we don't really care how it's done, but we're going to need it to be sooner than 13 years. Ok. Thanks.